Current Affairs Global - 19 June 2014

1. The Federal Reserve continued to reduced its aggressive monthly bond buying program known as Quantitative Easing as per announcement made yesterday. The central bank now reduced its monthly purchases of Government-linked bonds by another USD 10 billion to USD 35 billion.

The Federal Reserve has also left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at the near-zero level since December 2008. Fed is expected to hold interest rate at record low level at least till end of 2014 after the bond buying program ends.

The Federal Reserve has also lowered US economic growth projection due to harsh winter. It has now projected US economic growth of between 2.1% and 2.3% this year compared to earlier projection of 2.8% to 3%.

2. Spain's new king, Felipe VI, was sworn in yesterday after his father King Juan Carlos formally resigned Wednesday. It is the first royal transition in Spain since democracy was restored in the 1970s. The new king also promised to uphold the constitution while taking oath.

3. World Number One Chess player Magnus Carlsen won the FIDE World Rapid Chess Championship title in Dubai. He scored 11 out of 15 points to win the Gold medal while Aremian Fabiani Caruana won Silver medal and India-s Vishwanathan Anand won the bronze medal in the tournament. In his last game against Anand had to settle for a draw yesterday against Teimour Radjabov.

4. Former Bangladesh Cricket team Captain of Mohammad Ashraful was banned for eight years by the disciplinary panel set up by the Bangladesh Cricket Board. He was found guilty on four charges of fixing matches in Bangladesh Premier League of 2013. He was under suspension since June 2013 after he admitted to the ICC's Anti-Corruption and Security Unit that he had indulged in fixing BPL matches.